A ‘Budtender’ Gives Us a Potent Look Inside a Colorado Weed Dispensary

In this week’s edition of First-Person Shooter, we gave two cameras to Emily, a Denver-based “budtender” who runs the counter at Magnolia Road, a dispensary that operates both a medical and recreational marijuana storefront, as well as a grow house. A huge weed enthusiast, she smokes about an eighth of dank nug a day, and helps upwards of 300 customers pick out a variety of strains, edibles, and other pot products.

On top of shooting the inside of Magnolia Road, Emily snapped #weedporn-worthy pics of the company’s massive warehouse filled with budding buds. She also talked to VICE about the inner-workings of a commercial pot dispensary that she says makes anywhere between $5,000 and $10,000 a day.

VICE: What was your day like Friday? Where did it start? What’d you get up to?
Emily the Budtender: I started my day by getting high before work—the critical wake and bake. Open to close shifts are normal in the industry, so a typical day usually goes from 8:45 AM to 7:45 PM. It was a normal Friday in the stores after that. Our recreational and medical locations are right next door to each other, so I’m usually the budtender jumping between both shops. The medical side has been up and running for three years and the recreational side just under a year.